A study in the journal Cell Metabolism found enforcing a late-night food curfew could help you burn fat without dieting.

Researchers here discovered that mice confined to an eight-hour feeding period became leaner and healthier than mice that casually ate throughout the day.

Here’s the story. They divided the mice – all of which shared the same genes, gender, and age – into one of two groups. Both groups ate the same mice equivalent of pizza, Ben & Jerrys, and beer.

But their meal timing was different. One group ate whenever they wanted. Because mice are nocturnal, these guys put away half their food at night and otherwise casually noshed throughout the day.

The second group, however, could only eat within an eight-hour window every night. In other words, for 16 hours every day, these mice fasted.

Bad news for the mice that chowed down 24/7: after 100 days, they became fat with high blood sugar, cholesterol, liver damage, and with deteriorating health.

The fasting mice, on the other hand, weighed 28% less and – you guessed it – were in glowing health.

Oh, and guess which group won the exercise contest? Yep, the fasting mice.

I’ll repeat that again: both groups ate the same crappy diet, just at different times.

“It’s a dogma that a high-fat diet leads to obesity and that we should eat frequently when we are awake,” said senior author Satchidananda Panda. “Our findings, however, suggest that regular eating times and fasting for a significant number of hours a day might be beneficial to our health.”

These researchers suggested people could get the same metabolic benefits as the eight-hour mice by putting the brakes on eating after dinner until the next morning’s breakfast.

You’ve probably heard about intermittent fasting (IF), where you voluntarily forego food for a certain period of time. Besides numerous health benefits, proponents claim IF is a great way to burn fat.

The concept is nothing new. Even in the early 60s researchers noted that people could become and stay lean by doing one water-only fast every week, which allowed “them to be more liberal with their diet on the other days.”

Hunger is a powerful force. And despite these benefits, walking around famished and cranky all day is absolutely no fun. That’s a big reason you might be reluctant to try IF.

Which makes this study so relevant and interesting: by doing most of your IF while you’re asleep, you can get its benefits without suffering hunger or deprivation. At worst, you might have to surrender your midnight snack.

So you could have a big dinner at 6 p.m. and then resume eating the following morning at, say, 9 a.m. In other words, you’ll be “fasting” for about 14 hours, which gives your body enough time to shift into serious fat-burning mode.

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting you have an all-you-can-eat deep dish and cheesecake dinner and then expect your fat to melt away.

But if you’re stalling with your current eating plan (maybe your low-carb diet has hit a plateau) or want to burn a few pounds before your two-week trip to Kauai, you might want to give this overnight fast a try.

Definitely matches my experience. Like the janitor does his job better after the office staff goes home, and the digestive system needs a break now and then.

"Eat 6 times a day" is one of those pieces of advice that could only show up once the food labels in the 90s started prescribing 300g carbohydrate per day. Six doses of 50g is a slightly less horrible glycemic load than three doses of 100g but at the end of the day you still have a glucose monkey riding your back.

Thanks for posting this, it's very interesting. I have been IF for a while now and have noticed that it REALLY does work - you don't have to be so careful with what you eat when you do eat. Feeling as though you HAVE to eat at certain times of the day is silly. Just eat when you're hungry... and whilst living low-carb, it's pretty easy to stay not hungry for 14 hours, especially if many of those are whilst asleep!

This is similar to the Fast-5 plan, only Fast-8!! Probably alot easier to live with!! Will try it today, but just had my coffee. I guess that breaks a fast. Oh well, I will not eat food until lunchtime.

Don't really know that I want to give up my early morning coffee. I wonder if that little bit of cream breaks the fast???? Anyone know??

__________________
***Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. Henry Ford**

Don't really know that I want to give up my early morning coffee. I wonder if that little bit of cream breaks the fast???? Anyone know??

Lots of fast-5 people don't count the morning coffee/cream (me included!). I also don't count coconut oil. (Or bourbon in the evening, but that's definitely not on plan! But for my maintenance, it's fine).

Lots of fast-5 people don't count the morning coffee/cream (me included!). I also don't count coconut oil. (Or bourbon in the evening, but that's definitely not on plan! But for my maintenance, it's fine).

Thank you for responding!! I have been in a plateau for months and really really really want to break that 130 barrier!! I have been staying low carb and really feel so much better eating this way, but feel that I have gotten in such a habit that my body needs a little change to get the pounds off.

I'm thinking an eating window will do the trick, but I just love my morning coffee and really don't want to have to let that go!! I will start today then.

Do you just eat Coconut Oil straight?? I usually have some everyday, but in pudding or my low carb cookie dough!

__________________
***Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. Henry Ford**

Great info!! Ty!! I would love a clear definition of 'fasting'. It appears that many think it is 'small amounts of food' and others say 'only fluids' while others say 'only water'. I would think this would be an important clarification to have but can't seem to find a definitive answer.

I practice i.f. fairly regularly (coffee with cream most often during fasting but sometimes only black coffee). I lose nothing and my window of eating is 4 to 5 hours. I do it because I like the 'control' it gives me and the simplicity. If it is adding to health then that is a bonus.

__________________Cathy
Original start - Feb. 2000 180/125

"The energy content of food (calories) matters, but it is less important than the metabolic effect of food on our body." Dr. P. Attia

Matches my experience to. I've been eating 8 hours out of the day between 8:30 and 4:30, and no food till 8:30 the next morning. And feeling FAB, sleeping HARD, good workouts, and have lost 6 lb in a week. But I HAVE been also limiting cals to 1400-1500 per day.

__________________
<----Me 6/20/14It's not a DIET!!
Since I'm not on a diet, I can't go off of it
213.5/147/135, 160 original goal, Maintenance
Size 22/6-8/8 5'5", Age 41
Started 5/23/03"YES, YOU CAN!"
Surgically Hypothyroid since 11/2002

I did try IF for 4 weeks and lost a total of....nothing. I ate 2 LC meals between 11 AM and 8 PM.

Maybe that time frame is too late. I do horrible when I eat late like that. The earlier I eat my last meal, the better I do. Just a thought. Make your 8 hour window EARLY.

__________________
<----Me 6/20/14It's not a DIET!!
Since I'm not on a diet, I can't go off of it
213.5/147/135, 160 original goal, Maintenance
Size 22/6-8/8 5'5", Age 41
Started 5/23/03"YES, YOU CAN!"
Surgically Hypothyroid since 11/2002

Thanks for this Carolyn.
Love to read something that supports what I am experiencing!
I don't eat anything for 20 hours, three times a week.
I have not found this to be a weight loss miracle.
It is the other benefits that encourage me to continue to fast.
I do find that my weight does not bounce up as much when I incorporating fasting into my WOE.

__________________Heather

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change
Carl Rogers

This may explain why I don't seem to lose as fast when I work a lot...12 hour days make for a late dinner and an early breakfast... therefore not as much time between last and first meal...food for thought... no pun intended

Lots of fast-5 people don't count the morning coffee/cream (me included!). I also don't count coconut oil. (Or bourbon in the evening, but that's definitely not on plan! But for my maintenance, it's fine).

Then count me in My last meal of the day is dinner and I am done by 7 or at latest 7:30PM. I then don't eat anything the next day til 11AM at the earliest. But I do have coffee and lately have included a TBL of coconut oil at 6 AM. But my meal doesn't start til after 11AM.

I guess I would have to bump up my dinner earlier though. I eat when my family eats. I will have to investigate this further.......

I've been trying this the past several days, so it's interesting and excellent timing to discover this. We'll see if I'm among the lucky who have success! My eating window has been 2 pm to 10 pm (except coconut oil in the morning; don't use anything in my coffee anyway), but I'm more than willing to adjust it as needed.

dawnyama, I'm not sure it's so necessary to alter your meals/family's meals to avoid the evening/night eating, though, assuming you're keeping the same-sized window. If the mice are nocturnal, that is more their equivalent of daytime hours for most of us, right?

Those of you who had zero success, could you have been in the middle of a stall during the trial period?

__________________Don't forget to laugh today. The more implausible it seems, the more you need to!

Encouraging a food addict to "just have one treat, so you'll stay motivated and on track" is like encouraging an alcoholic to just have one drink so they won't fall off the wagon.

I don't even consider it or call it 'fasting'. I just say I eat within an 8 hr window. lol. Since I'm still getting in all my cals, just within a specific time frame, then it seems 'normal' to me. And it totally works very well for me.

__________________
<----Me 6/20/14It's not a DIET!!
Since I'm not on a diet, I can't go off of it
213.5/147/135, 160 original goal, Maintenance
Size 22/6-8/8 5'5", Age 41
Started 5/23/03"YES, YOU CAN!"
Surgically Hypothyroid since 11/2002

You won't get any argument from the JUDDD devotees. We absolutely love the health and weight loss benefits of our alternate day fasting/feasting way of eating.

I'm carrying over my JUDDDing to low carb and not eating till at least 11:00, sometimes I get to 1:00. My calories are the same every day and my carbs are at Atkins induction levels but the 15-17 hour fast is carried over from JUDDD, I loved JUDDD but DDs were starting to kill me.

I've tried several things to find the right fit for myself, and wasn't able to lose weight doing IF with noon and 6:30 pm meals only. And I tried doing Fast 5 with a 2:00 and 6:30 window, but I didn't lose on that either, and I think my trouble was just that I ate too much. I was fine with the hours in which I ate.. but I just ate too much. I didn't count calories and just relied on the plans themselves to do it for me. But, alas, I have to count the cals.

So if I'm going to count anyway, I found I liked the JUDDD plan best to actually live on. It's easy for me to eat modestly on the one day, and certainly completely easy for me to eat fully on the Up Day, that big eating apparently causing my troubles previously.

I tried doing just the one meal a day thing, and I can do that easily enough every other day if I want to, but to do it every single day... I was so hungry when suppertime came that I just plainly overate.

I never eat what my fam eats for dinner anyway, so eating my 'dinner' at a diff time from them isn't an issue either for me. I separated myself from that when I first started 9 yrs ago. It was just easier on me to do so.

__________________
<----Me 6/20/14It's not a DIET!!
Since I'm not on a diet, I can't go off of it
213.5/147/135, 160 original goal, Maintenance
Size 22/6-8/8 5'5", Age 41
Started 5/23/03"YES, YOU CAN!"
Surgically Hypothyroid since 11/2002